These data present detailed income and expenditure data for the Diary component of the ongoing Consumer Expenditure Survey (CEX). The Consumer Expenditure Survey program provides a continuous and comprehensive flow of data on the buying habits of American consumers. The primary purpose of the Diary component of the Survey is to provide the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) with a data base for the maintenance and review of the Consumer Price Index (CPI). The Diary Survey collects expenditure data for items purchased on a daily or weekly basis. The actual information is obtained by asking participants to maintain records of all purchases made each day for a two-week period. This survey is suited to collect expenditure data for small, frequently purchased items such as food, beverages, food consumed away from home, gasoline, housekeeping supplies, nonprescription drugs and medical supplies, and personal care products and services.

Please Note: This dataset is part of the historical CISER Data Archive Collection and is also available at ICPSR at https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR09114.v1. We highly recommend using the ICPSR version as they may make this dataset available in multiple data formats in the future.